Patna blasts: One accused fights for life, another sent to custody

One of the two terror accused arrested in connection with the serial blasts in Patna, in which six people were killed and nearly 100 others injured, is battling for his life at a government hospital in Patna and another was sent to remand by the police, officials said on Tuesday.

Contrary to reports that a suspected terror accused Ainul alias Tarique had succumbed to his injuries, he is still in critical condition at the Patna-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences.

Ainul was arrested when he was found crying in pain at a Patna junction toilet after a bomb exploded when he was trying to fix or fit timer on Sunday morning.

IGIMS director Arun Kumar said that with splinter injuries to the brain, he continued to be critical and the chances of his recovery are very poor. “He is unconscious and not responding to medication,” he said.

Mohammad Imtiaz Ansari, another arrested terror accused, was sent to police remand.

Ansari, a resident of Ranchi, was arrested from Patna railway junction after a bomb exploded on platform number 10 on Sunday morning, ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s rally.

Superintendent of Railway Police Upendra Kumar Singh said Imtiaz was produced before the court of railway magistrate in Patna on late Monday night and remanded to police custody for seven days.

Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said two separate first information reports had been lodged with the government railway police and Gandhi Maidan police stations. Six of the seven blasts took place in and around the rally venue while one blast took place at the railway station.

Additional Director General (special branch) Rajesh Chandra said Ansari, the main accused caught with bombs at the Patna junction when he tried to flee after the first blast, was interrogated and confessed to his involvement.

“Ansari told the police that a group of six people had been divided into three groups with specific assignments to carry out the blasts,” Chandra said. Maharaj said that Patna police will take Ansari in police custody in a day or two.

Six people were killed and 83 were injured in seven bomb blasts in Patna. The first of the blasts ripped through a toilet at around 10 am at the railway station in the heart of the city, killing one person and wounding another.

After an hour, by which time Modi had reached Patna but not the rally ground, four explosions took place inside the Gandhi Maidan compound, and two around it that caused a lot of panic.

The Patna railway station is located two-three kilometres from the Gandhi Maidan.